Detection rules › Sigma
Suspicious Loading of Dbgcore/Dbghelp DLLs from Uncommon Location
Detects loading of dbgcore.dll or dbghelp.dll from uncommon locations such as user directories. These DLLs contain the MiniDumpWriteDump function, which can be abused for credential dumping purposes or in some cases for evading EDR/AV detection by suspending processes.
MITRE ATT&CK coverage
| Tactic | Techniques |
|---|---|
| Defense Impairment | T1685 Disable or Modify Tools |
| Credential Access | T1003 OS Credential Dumping |
Event coverage
| Provider | Event | Title |
|---|---|---|
| Sysmon | Event ID 7 | Image loaded |
Rule body yaml
title: Suspicious Loading of Dbgcore/Dbghelp DLLs from Uncommon Location
id: 416bc4a2-7217-4519-8dc7-c3271817f1d5
related:
- id: 9f5c1d59-33be-4e60-bcab-85d2f566effd
type: similar
status: experimental
description: |
Detects loading of dbgcore.dll or dbghelp.dll from uncommon locations such as user directories.
These DLLs contain the MiniDumpWriteDump function, which can be abused for credential dumping purposes or in some cases for evading EDR/AV detection by suspending processes.
references:
- https://blog.axelarator.net/hunting-for-edr-freeze/
- https://www.zerosalarium.com/2025/09/EDR-Freeze-Puts-EDRs-Antivirus-Into-Coma.html
- https://www.splunk.com/en_us/blog/security/you-bet-your-lsass-hunting-lsass-access.html
author: Swachchhanda Shrawan Poudel (Nextron Systems)
date: 2025-11-27
modified: 2026-01-09
tags:
- attack.credential-access
- attack.defense-impairment
- attack.t1003
- attack.t1685
logsource:
category: image_load
product: windows
detection:
selection_img:
Image|contains:
- ':\Perflogs\'
- ':\Temp\'
- ':\Users\Public\'
- '\$Recycle.Bin\'
- '\Contacts\'
# - '\Desktop\'
- '\Documents\'
# - '\Downloads\'
- '\Favorites\'
- '\Favourites\'
- '\inetpub\wwwroot\'
- '\Music\'
- '\Pictures\'
- '\Start Menu\Programs\Startup\'
- '\Users\Default\'
- '\Videos\'
# - '\AppData\Local\Temp\' some installers may load from here
selection_dll:
ImageLoaded|endswith:
- '\dbgcore.dll'
- '\dbghelp.dll'
condition: all of selection_*
falsepositives:
- Unknown
level: high
regression_tests_path: regression_data/rules/windows/image_load/image_load_win_susp_dbgcore_dbghelp_load/info.yml
Stages and Predicates
Stage 0: condition
all of selection_*Stage 1: selection_img
selection_img:
Image|contains:
- ':\Perflogs\'
- ':\Temp\'
- ':\Users\Public\'
- '\$Recycle.Bin\'
- '\Contacts\'
- '\Documents\'
- '\Favorites\'
- '\Favourites\'
- '\inetpub\wwwroot\'
- '\Music\'
- '\Pictures\'
- '\Start Menu\Programs\Startup\'
- '\Users\Default\'
- '\Videos\'
Stage 2: selection_dll
selection_dll:
ImageLoaded|endswith:
- '\dbgcore.dll'
- '\dbghelp.dll'
Indicators
Each row is a field, operator, and value that the rule matches. The corpus column counts how many other rules in the catalog look for the same combination: high numbers point to widely-used, community-vetted indicators. Blank or 1 shows that the indicator is specific to this rule.
| Field | Kind | Values |
|---|---|---|
Image | match |
|
ImageLoaded | ends_with |
|